Noises Off...

NOISES OFF is a 1982 play by the English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it came in 1970, when Frayn was watching from the wings a performance of The Two of Us, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave. He said, "It was funnier from behind than in front, and I thought that one day I must write a farce from behind."

Each of the three acts of Noises Off contains a performance of the first act of a play within a play, a poor farce called Nothing On. The three acts of Noises Off are each named "Act One" on the contents page of the script, though they are labelled normally in the body of the script. Act One is set at the dress rehearsal. The cast are hopelessly unready, and baffled by entrances and exits, missed cues, missed lines, and bothersome props, including several plates of sardines. Act Two shows a Wednesday matinee performance one month later. In this act, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that emphasizes the deteriorating relationships between the cast that lead to offstage shenanigans and onstage bedlam. The play falls into disorder before the curtain falls. In Act Three, we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run, when personal friction has continued to increase. The actors remain determined at all costs to cover up the mounting series of mishaps, but it is not long before the plot has to be abandoned entirely and the more coherent characters are obliged to take a lead in ad-libbing somehow towards some sort of end. Some parts of it can cause a real belly laugh, but one generally grins throughout (in a British sort of way).Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as character flaws play off each other off-stage to undermine on-stage performance, with a great deal of slapstick. The contrast between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance. This Festival production is very animated and all of the characters are well-cast. In fact, an audience member gets the distinct feeling that all of the actors have had actual experiences like those in the play...times when everything falls apart including the relationships between the actors themselves. RPW